Oct. 10—The Alaska Supreme Court ordered backers of Gov. Mike Dunleavy to respond to subpoenas that seek to find whether they violated state campaign finance laws in the lead-up to the 2022 election.
Alaska’s top court issued its ruling on Friday, affirming a lower court decision from January 2024.
The ruling stems from a 2022 complaint filed by two Alaska watchdog organizations, the Alaska Public Interest Research Group and the 907 Initiative, alleging that the Republican Governors Association created a group called A Stronger Alaska ahead of the 2022 election as a shell entity to improperly spend money in support of Dunleavy’s reelection campaign without disclosing its donors as required by Alaska law.
The RGA donated $3 million to A Stronger Alaska — an independent expenditure group — in 2021, shortly before new voter-approved disclosure laws came into effect. The complaint alleges there was little separation between the RGA, which has millions of dollars at its disposal and regularly weighs in on competitive gubernatorial races, and the newly formed group as they shared bank statements and key personnel.
The Alaska Public Offices Commission, which regulates Alaska political campaigns, was tasked with investigating the complaint and issued subpoenas for RGA’s bank statements and other records.
RGA and A Stronger Alaska denied that they had violated the law and declined to respond to the subpoenas.
After the commission took the matter to court, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Una Gandbhir ordered the groups to comply with the subpoenas. The groups appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court, which affirmed the lower court’s ruling Friday.
Anchorage attorney Scott Kendall, who represented the two groups that filed the original complaint against the RGA, said Friday that the Supreme Court ruling rendered the subpoenas “bulletproof.”
Attorneys Stacey Stone and Richard Moses, who represented A Stronger Alaska and the RGA in the proceedings, did not immediately reply to questions on whether their clients would comply with the subpoenas following the ruling.
Though nearly three years have passed since the 2022 election that is at the heart of the original complaint, Kendall said the results of the subpoenas and the commission’s eventual ruling on the complaint could have implications for next year’s election, and the RGA’s involvement in it.
“One, the public will know whether they broke the law in the past, and two, they will obviously be required to produce their true sources as they use their money, so it actually, weirdly, is going to have very good timing for being relevant to this upcoming election,” Kendall said.
More than 10 Alaska GOP candidates have filed to run in next year’s race for governor, with Dunleavy termed out from running again for the seat.
